Children - Terre des Hommes

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However, closer observation of the current mining sector
reveals that mineral production is being viewed by both
the central and state governments as a means of short-term
revenue generation and to fuel current economic growth
rates, as opposed to being considered holistically as part
of the country’s wider, more long-term development goals,
human development indicators and preservation of the
environment and other natural resources such as water.
With the new economic policy in India, there have been
a number of changes in the mining sector. Although
traditionally in the hands of the public sector, there has been
increasing privatisation
and more mines are now privately owned. Foreign direct
investment has been a thrust area for the sector, with both
the central and state governments pushing for liberalisation
and deregulation in not only the Coal Nationalisation Act
and labour laws, but also in other related areas such as the
environment. It has also impacted employment due to the
enforcement of Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS) on
mine workers. The Fifth Scheduled Areas, areas which are
constitutionally demarcated for tribal populations, are
being opened up for foreign direct investment and private
industries, primarily mining, leading to deforestation
and displacement of tribals. Most alarmingly, there has
been a huge increase in the informal sector mining activities
through sub-contracting mining and quarrying.
But mining is not the subject of this study. This study
is about the relationship between children’s rights and
mining. It attempts to address the question — what is
the impact of mining on children? According to the most
recent Indian Census carried out in 2001, children constitute
mining areas. These we refer to as “Mining Children” in this
report.
A fact-finding study in 2005 in the iron ore mines of
Hospet in Bellary District, Karnataka, for the first time,
brought home to the organisations involved in this study,
the immense impact mining has on the lives of children. It
became imperative to follow that fact-finding study with a
more systematic research to gain a better understanding.
India boasts of several legal protections for children, with
the Right to Education being the latest fundamental right.
These laws are strengthened by positive schemes to bring
children out of poverty and marginalisation. The paradox
of mining lies in the fact that the mining industry or
the mining administration is not legally responsible for
ensuring most of the rights and development needs of
children. The mess that is created in the lives of children as
a result of mining is now addressed by other departments
like child welfare, education, tribal welfare, labour and
others, which makes for an inter-departmental conflict
of interest and leaves ample room for ambiguities in state
accountability. In this process, the child is being forgotten.
Hence, the glaring heart-rending impacts of mining on
children have technically few legal redressal mechanisms to
bring the multiple players to account.
While there is some documentation and research available
on the impact of mining on communities in general, apart
from scattered and anecdotal information, very little
information is available on the impact of mining on children
in all its dimensions. Research on mining and children has
tended to focus solely on the aspect of child labour, which
again is restricted to minerals that are normally exported
and have the potential to shock the western consumer. The
multitude of other ways in which children are impacted
by mining have been completely neglected. Needless to
say, neither the groups and campaigns that focus on mining
issues, nor those working with children, have paid this issue
the attention it deserves.
This report provides but a glimpse into the lives of children
living, working, affected by and exploited by mining in India.
We hope that the microcosm of children we touched through
this report evokes a national reflection on what could be the
plight of millions of children affected by mining in India.
It is hoped that this report will yet again bring to national
debate the paradox of “India’s inclusive growth” that still
ignores the majority of children. When national sentiments
are stirred by the rhetoric of children being the future of our
nation, it is important to assess for ourselves whether our
development models are actually geared towards creating a
future for India’s children, or are instead, providing a nation
with little present or future for the majority of our children.
It therefore asks the question, “How do we as a nation want
to measure ourselves as achieving human development?”
This study shows how the development aspirations created
by our policy makers and political leadership create a strong
likelihood for future divides between the children of this
country, furthering both the socio-economic divide and the
urban-rural divide. Among the adivasi and dalit children,
the displacement, impoverishment and indebtedness caused